SingHealth Community Hospitals (SCH) has launched Dexie, a social humanoid robot, to support cognitive stimulation and meaningful engagement for patients with dementia. This initiative, marking World Alzheimer’s Month, makes SCH the first public healthcare institution in Singapore to integrate such technology into its inpatient dementia care programme. Developed with Dex-Lab and Goshen Consultancy Services, the programme began earlier this year and has demonstrated promising results in patient wellbeing and care efficiency.
Dexie, a multilingual robot, leads exercises, facilitates cognitive games, and conducts musical activities in English, Mandarin, Malay, and various Chinese dialects. Dr Bryan Han, Director of Dementia and Cognitive Care Service at SCH, highlighted the importance of consistent cognitive stimulation in maintaining neural connections and potentially slowing cognitive decline. “Dexie fills this gap by delivering evidence-based interventions,” he said.
The pilot programme showed a 32% increase in positive patient engagement and 46% of participants exhibited cognitive improvements. Additionally, operational efficiency improved, with two man-hours reallocated per session to higher-value tasks, and productivity increased by 25%.
Since the pilot, Dexie has engaged over 1,400 patients across SCH, with plans to expand further. As Singapore’s dementia prevalence is expected to nearly double by 2030, innovative solutions like Dexie offer sustainable therapeutic engagement, allowing healthcare professionals to focus on complex care needs. SCH is also developing a playbook to guide broader adoption of humanoid-enabled therapy in community hospitals.
